1. Priority Claim
This application claims the benefit of priority from European Patent 07021932.4, filed Nov. 12, 2007, which is incorporated by reference.
2. Technical Field
This disclosure is directed to an enhancement of speech signals that contain noise, and particularly to partial speech reconstruction.
3. Related Art
Two-way speech communication may suffer from effects of localized noise. While hands-free devices provide a comfortable and safe communication medium, noisy environments may severely affect the quality and intelligibility of voice transmissions.
In vehicles, localized sources of interferences (e.g., the air conditioning or a partly opened window), may distort speech signals. To mediate these effects, some systems include noise suppression filters to improve intelligibility.
Some noise suppression filters weight speech signals and preserve background noise. To reconstruct speech, a filter may estimate an excitation signal and a spectral envelope. Unfortunately, in some noisy environments spectral envelope are not reliably estimated. Relatively strong noises may mask content and yield low signal-to-noise ratios. Current systems do not ensure intelligibility and/or a desired speech quality when transmitted through a communication medium.